2NE1's Vocal Prowess

2NE1's commentary was very easy to write actually, mainly because even if they pretty much only have one mini-album and two singles off that as a group, they have a ton of solo stuff, a ton of collaborations and a ton of re-arranged performances that show me how versatile they are as a band.


Vocally, 2NE1 are very, VERY strong, if not for one girl - Sandara. I don't care if all you andara fans start crawling out of nowhere and attacking me but even since she was here (in the Philippines), I hated her guts. But we'll get to that later.

Back to my point. If my standards are Idol group standards, aka as long as you can hold a melody it's fine, then they're way ahead of everyone else. But you see, according to everyone, they're not just any old idol group - they're 2NE1. And because they're not like everyone else, I won't treat them like everyone else.

You cannot deny that no matter how popular 2NE1 get and no matter how much I hate hearing their songs everywhere.I.go, they know how to perform. The recorded arrangements of their singles may be as boring as hell (I'm talking to you, I Don't Care) but the minute they have a big awards show or music festival to attend, the re-arrangement or remix will just blow you away. Fans eagerly await the next re-working of their favorite hits and they get the 'critical acclaim' (if there is such a thing in kpop) from musicians and everyone's happy. YG knows how to one, make a hit, and two, make a musically outstanding performance arrangement of said hit. Even if I'm not the biggest fan of rap, I gotta commend YG and 2NE1 for their performances. Gah. Now how I wish DBSK were as creative with their live performances.

2NE1 are more than just singers, they're performers. Performing is beyond singing - a performer not only knows how to sing, but knows how to make people listen. To be able to be performers at this early in their career just makes me want to worship them. lol. I swear, every time I hear a new re-arrangement it makes me love these girls even more.

But wait. Let's get the terms straight first. There are people who can't sing but are performers - you have to watch them to appreciate them as artists. There are people who can sing their head off but don't necessarily know how to put on a show - you don't have to watch them to know they're good, you can just listen. Then there are people who can sing AND put on a show - that's 2NE1.

All these constant re-workings show their versatility as singers and as a band, which is probably one of the most important things to possess if you're a pop singer - people expect you to be able to sing your head off in every possible way and 2NE1 can do that.

I don't have to talk about how good they work as a group anymore because they're beyond just being able to work as a group - they're at a point where all they have to do now is develop the voices they already have *ahem* and do some more decent a capella work *ahem*.

EDIT: I didn't think I had to say this anymore but with the influx of comments here and on Twitter, I guess I have to. 2NE1 are a vocal group, they sing and make MUSIC - that's their job. I'm evaluating them as singers and not members - I don't care one bit if they're funny or they're nice in person, if they can't sing they don't deserve to be in the band for the sole reason that 2NE1 is a MUSICAL group. If a member doesn't have a voice he/she should just go into acting or modeling or something - not singing. I hope that clarifies things.

THE SINGLES

FIRE 

(2009)

I DON'T CARE 

(2009)

Now, this 10-minute performance at the controversial MAMAs late last year pretty much sums everything up - YG knows how to put on a show, 2NE1 knows how to sing, etc. Hahah.

Sandara

Gah. Let's get her out of the way already. I don't like Sandara, never have, never will - she's the token pretty face in the band that doesn't really contribute anything outstanding musically. I hated her guts when she was here in the Philippines (not because she's Korean, I'm not a racist. lol.) because one, she was annoying, two ABS-CBN (that's a TV channel) was giving her so much publicity she clearly didn't deserve and three, she couldn't sing or act. There you have it. Although I do think she's improved since then, I still don't think her vocal abilities are up to par with the rest of the group. Her voice is weak, it's shrill, it's too thin in the bad way and she can't push. I don't necessarily like it when you push your voice to much but in this case she just can't. And I think it's all a matter of personal taste - I don't like her voice. If Sandara was in an 'OK if can hold a melody' band, then she'd be pretty good, actually. But 2NE1 aren't one of those bands, they're supposed to have outstanding talent. To a certain extent I've seen/heard worse but compared to her band mates, Sandara fails miserably.

Park Bom

Park Bom is supposedly 'the voice' of 2NE1 - she's the one with the big vocals and she's the one who gets most of the prominent melodic parts on songs. I do think she has a gorgeous, gorgeous voice but the more you think about it, the plain-er her voice gets. Every single girl group that has come and gone has 'the big voice', people think it's so special to have a voice like that but it's not, anymore. Don't get me wrong, I think Park Bom's voice is gorgeous, it's just that I don't think she should be getting more publicity for her voice than Minzy or CL. But the girl does know how to sing her head of properly - I gotta hand it to her.

Minzy

Minzy's the youngest - SHE'S MY AGE. And so for her to be able to sing like that, all my dreams of ever being a pop star (no matter how small they are) have been thrown away. Minzy was actually the first voice in 2NE1 that really caught my ear - I like smooth vocals, Minzy has smooth vocals. It just works. The thing with Minzy is that her voice may be thin but she has this nice, deep timbre - something you don't usually hear in a smooth voice. I love Minzy's vocals, I really do - I just have one tiny little problem with them. Nothing big though. There are times when she doesn't deliver. It's not that she can't sing or she doesn't have a voice, she does, it's pretty damn good, it's just that she's not that consistent yet. Take her age into consideration - once again, SHE IS MY AGE. I can't sing and dance at the same time like that. She can. She just needs more practice and her voice needs to grow. Once that's done gah, she'll be even more brilliant than she already is.

(she's the one with short hair.)

CL

The girl I was most surprised with was CL. During their Fire days CL was being pushed as the rapper and the leader but then I Don't Care came around and she sang. Shet. This girl can sing. I was sucked in. Not only can she sing, she can sing pretty damn good. And no matter how much I think Park Bom's voice is perfect for singing your head off, CL's got something that's made me like her more than Bom. But we'll get to that later.

CL's voice is like Minzy + Bom - she has the power and deep timbre that Bom has but she also has a smoothness to her vocals. That's like the perfect combination. Gah.

It took time for me to choose my favorite voice in 2NE1 and it too time for all the right reasons - Bom, Minzy and CL all have their own styles, their own niches and they have different voices. Ranking them would be really hard. But there was one thing that CL does better than all the others - perform.

CL knows how to sell a song, no matter how crap or good or boring, CL knows how to sell it. She raps, she sings, she prances around stage and it all seems so natural to her. That's the whole point of being a singer and having a voice in pop music - you have to be able to sell whatever song your record label gives you, bad or good. CL does it the best and she does it with so much conviction you'd think she wrote the songs they perform. No matter how crazy her wardrobe gets (at times) or how annoying Fire was (for me), CL sold it because that's what you do when you're a singer.

(She's the one in pig tails.)

Now, there's something I have to do. *goes and hides under a rock for what she said about Sandara*

f(x)'s Vocal Prowess

Yes, I have finally gotten around to writing another commentary - this time for f(x). No, not the algebra function, the girl group.

It took me quite some time to be able to even start writing this because of how new f(x) are. 2 singles, 6 recorded tracks and only a handful of performances but what makes it worse is that Victoria, their leader and the oldest member, hardly got any lines I could refer to in writing this. Thankfully the one example I needed came recently, in the form of their rendition of SNSD's Kissing You. But we'll get to that later.

f(x) are very, very far from SNSD in terms of vocal ability - there may be good and outstanding vocals in SNSD but if you take the percentages, f(x) clearly win. They're more like the younger, more contemporary version of CSJH, just like how SHINee is the younger version of DBSK. But unlike SHINee, I can order their vocals from best to worse if you give me time and more solo stuff from each member. Sadly, I don't have either right now so I won't. lol.

Their only two singles as a little background before I start firing insults and praises. Hahah.

LaChaTa (September 2009-ish)

Chu~♡ (November 2009-ish)

OK. Shall we?

Victoria

Victoria is being pushed as the dancer of the band but even before she got in she got a ton of publicity - appearing on Rain's video for Samsung + the 2008 Olympics and even SHINee's Replay. As I said earlier, Victoria was the reason why it took so long for me to write this commentary, but I think it was somewhat worth the wait. It's not that the girl can't sing and it's not that her voice is ugly, the problem is that her vocals are very weak. She doesn't have a gorgeous voice with no technique nor does she have a mediocre voice with a lot of technique - she has a plain, untrained voice with hardly any technique. She doesn't know when to breathe, where to push and how to sing. With a little work she can be decent, like Yunho.

(solo at 0:36-0:40)

Sulli

I don't like Sulli, and I don't like her a lot. lol. I know aa-chan is gonna kill me for this but whatever. There's a Filipino slang/Taglish (Tagalog+English) term for her voice - Pa-cute. It basically means that she's trying too hard to deliberately be cute. It works for publicity but when you get down to the music it's kinda pathetic. There's this concept that all pop-based girl groups have to have a cutesy/just a pretty face member and I hate that (*ahem* Sandara *ahem*). I hate those members and I hate the fact that it doesn't happen often in boybands with talent (*ahem* DBSK, SHINee, Big Bang, 2AM *ahem*) but just HAS to happen in girl groups whether they have any semblance of talent or not. Why? Because it brings down the group musically. If Sulli stopped being cutesy, she'd have a pretty decent voice. Not fantastic or anything but competent and I've learned to accept the fact that Korean girl group members won't always have brilliant voices.

(Solos at 0:36-0:40 and 1:26-1:31)

Krystal

I don't like Krystal either - never have, never will. One because she gets too much publicity just for being Jessica SNSD's sister and two because she isn't as good as everyone says she is. She isn't a Junsu who has an excessive but at the same time great voice, she just has an excessive one. It's squeaky but not in the Sulli way. That duet with Luna on their 'first single'? She practically got pulverized by Luna. Yeah, sure she can hold a melody and yeah sure she can sing but the timbre of her voice is very plain. When she does all these vocal gymnastics she can't pull them off because her voice is shrill. It's shrill and it gets even shrill-er when she hits high notes. Personally, ONE BIG NO.

(Krystal's the one on the right)

Amber

Amber is the tomboy rapper in the band who looks like a guy who looks like a girl. She is in fact a girl. (I made that up one day. Works, right?) I've been told by several friends that she's a good rapper but obviously I don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to rap so let's skip that altogether. When I heard Lachata I though she should've gotten more lines because I thought she could sing pretty damn well - better than SOME of the girls in the group. For the longest time that was my impression of Amber - the girl who didn't get that many lines in songs but could sing pretty damn well. But then I heard a live performance of Chu and that impression was completely changed. She has a voice, yes, and to a certain extent she can sing but she can't sing live - her vocals need more technique. She's a lot like Minho SHINee and I mean A LOT.

(Amber's singing solo is at 1:18)

Luna

Luna, Luna, Luna. I have one word for Luna's voice - spectacular. It completely pulverizes every other member but her voice isn't excessive not does she try too hard to make it sound good, it's just the way it is. From the very beginning Luna caught my ear - the first line of Lachata was just perfectly-executed and brilliantly-sung. It's very uncommon that you have someone who can sing this well in a pop band this new but of course I wasn't around when SHINee first sprouted out so I don't know. ANYWAY, Luna not only has a nice voice, SHE KNOWS HOW TO SING. HAVE YOU HEARD THAT HIGH NOTE SHE DID ON YOU ARE MY DESTINY?? Krystal is ABSOLUTELY NO MATCH FOR THIS GIRL. The timbre of her voice is to die for. There are times when she does sound older than her age (aka when singing Whitney) BUT, she can sing without sounding older. It's not excessive but it's rich - high notes sound GORGEOUS. It's stunning, spectacular and I could use every possible praise word for it. You have to hear to believe - I get goosebumps just thinking of her voice.

Comments? Disagreements? Fire them away in the comments section. BUT FOLLOW THE EFFIN' RULES - RESPECT. In short, NO BASHING PLEASE.

DBSK's Vocal Prowess Version 2.0 - Individual Analysis

So, the individual analysis. It took time for me to write this, mainly because I spent time on the people who I needed to spend time on, but I think I did a pretty good job.

This is how it'll work. Name, what part they sing on 5-part a capella numbers in numerical form - so 5 is lowest, 1 is highest plus what I personally call that part. It gives people with little technical knowledge an idea as to where the boys' ranges are. The commentary itself + a video of what I think highlights the point of my commentary. Got it? Got it.

Wait. A note on a capella first before I start. I don't use recorded a capella versions of tracks because I have a very strong feeling that they 'cheat' on it. It's not anything bad but from what I've been listening to, I think they record the background a capella separately from the solo lines which is actually OK. The only reason why I won't use them to judge is because if one member takes a solo, you can also hear his line in the background vocals - there's no difference whether he as a solo or not. So I use their live a capella stuff to judge.

Yunho
5 (lowest)

They need Yunho in the band vocally because who's gonna sing the bottom parts? He may not have the most appealing or technically proficient voice but he's the base - everyone else in the band relies on him. It's like a cheesecake - Jaejoong's the blueberries, Yoochun, Junsu and Changmin are the cheese and Yunho's the graham crackers at the bottom - you can't not have the guy in the band. (apologies for the crap analogy - it's been used in Choral music before.)

I don't like this voice, I'll say it flat out, and I think he's trying to mask the fact that he can't sing that well (anymore) with a crap attempt at a vibrato. It doesn't help one bit.

But back to my first point. A capella-wise the reason why they're so strong is partially because of Yunho. Compare him to Kian Westlife (I just HAVE to) and a capella wise he delivers much, much stronger.

Changmin
1 (top)

Yes, Changmin takes the top parts of DBSK tracks. His voice may be high but I noticed that it's very shrill. There are times when his voice just sounds amazing, and I mean breath-taking but about 60% of the time he still doesn't know what he's doing.

I (obviously) write these posts in parts - whatever comes into my mind at one moment I write down. So I know that I wrote what I wrote above but I can't exactly remember which song/video/performance I was listening to that fueled me to write that. ANYWAY.

While watching the band on this Korean variety show, I noticed something with Changmin's voice. He (randomly) sang Jaejoong's part towards the end of Tonight (I believe it was the sub-middle 8) and you know what? He delivers the vocal gymnastics of that part very well. SO, I have a conclusion - Changmin sounds good when he sings in a slightly lower range. Not too low but around Jaejoong's range, which is just a step lower than his.

I personally (PERSONALLY.) don't like Changmin's voice. I don't like it because there are too many times that it's shrill and I don't necessarily like shrill voices. But the middle 8 of 12:34 that he did was pretty good, I gotta say. HOWEVER, his shrill voice sounds absolutely FANTASTIC when you process/auto-tune it. I'm serious. I'm talking both the obvious and not-obvious types.

Take Wasurenaide for example, he sounded BRILLIANT on it. But then again they all sounded brilliant on it. However Changmin's voice was a lot less shrill than usual so yay!

Yoochun
4 (middle low)

I wasn't that impressed with Yoochun's voice when I wrote my first commentary but after hearing a heck of a lot more, it's very good. It's very rich, old-school R&B-ish and he has an unusual timbre. It's also very different from Junsu and Jaejoong's voices in the sense that it's not necessarily made for ballads but still, the guy can sing them pretty damn well.

I still stand by the fact that he tends to let loose too much live for my taste. And in the wrong way. But not always, so he's OK.

His voice can get airy and nasal-like at times though. Not always, but there are times when he still doesn't know how to do certain things with his voice. But his is definitely the voice with the most body and dimension in the band.

Junsu
2 (middle high)

Everyone goes on and on about Junsu's gorgeous voice and I think I now know why people are saying that. He has a rich, deep voice and a wide range but the one thing he's always had is technique. When you talk about technique in DBSK Junsu is the first name that comes to mind - the guy knows how to sing. He knows how to sing difficult songs like Tonight and he knows when to hold back and let go depending on the situation - he always has. From the very beginning he's been like that and now that his voice has matured he sounds like he'd be very comfortable as a ballad singer after DBSK.

Another thing I noticed about Junsu is the fact that he sounds much, MUCH better live. Junsu isn't like Mark Westlife who really murders the song live but the one flaw (I'm not sure if it's a flaw either) is that the guy tends to be the one who really lets loose live. Sometimes it can be good, sometimes it can be bad but either way he can sing.

I can't stress enough how good his technique is - consistently, Junsu is the best singer in DBSK. The guy's voice delivers on ballads and uptempos and although he isn't versatile like another member (*ahem* Jaejoong *ahem*) and his voice can't morph into whatever style he's signing, he sounds really, really, REALLY good at what he does. He may not have the best voice in my opinion but he knows how to make a good voice spectacular, he's solid proof that you don't have to have the most fantastic voice in the world (for me at least) to sound mind-blowing.

Jaejoong
3 (Melody)

Jaejoong has the best voice, in my humble opinion, but it took some time for him to be the best singer in DBSK - I still don't think he is, actually.

To be completely honest with you, at the beginning of DBSK Jaejoong's vocals were very plain. They weren't bad or anything but the one who really brought the band in terms of vocals and made them so unique was Junsu, and maybe even Yoochun at one point. Jaejoong's voice was clean but his voice was very young and didn't have the timbre he has now and he didn't know how to use that to his advantage yet.

Like I said during my re-briefing, there's a difference between a nice voice and a good singer - Jaejoong was just a nice voice when they started but he didn't exactly know how to use it. Junsu was the one who could sing his head off at the beginning and Junsu was the one people gushed over but Jaejoong was the one with the most potential, I think. He was the one with a gorgeous voice he didn't know how to use yet - over time he's learned. It took a few years before Jaejoong learned how to be a good singer and learned how to do this and that with his voice but now that he does, I'm like WHOA. It took him some time to realize his voice was the most versatile of all five of them.

He has the smoothest voice, the cleanest one but you tell him to sing his head off and he will do it. He hits high notes like Junsu, has the versatility no one else in the band has and he's now learned how to use his voice. It's also damn gorgeous. (sorry, just HAD to say it!)

There is a reason why Jaejoong is the lead singer, there is a reason why he sings the melody in a capella parts and there is a reason why he's not necessarily the one you go to for vocal gymnastics (although he does do them). For a capella pieces you need a lead vocal/melody part strong enough to float on top of everyone but good enough to blend all the other voices together - that's where Jaejoong comes in. The reason why Westlife are so good at a capella is partly because the top and bottom parts are strong but more so because the lead vocals are outstanding - same goes for DBSK, Jaejoong carries the band vocally. You need him in DBSK for the sole purpose of making all these different voices balance out and he does it pretty damn well.

Also, you need someone like Jaejoong on lead vocals because he can sing anything and make it sound like it's the most natural thing ever. The other 4 are good, no doubt, but their voices are confined to one or a few styles - they don't have the versatility Jaejoong has. So when they chose to sing something, they can ch damn well.

And because this is my blog and I can do anything I want to on it, TWO Jaejoong videos! lol.

NOW, put these 5 together and trust me, you have magic. It took some time for it to appear but once it did, for crap's sake it blew my mind. This is the reason why they're one of the biggest bands in Asia, if not the biggest - there's magic.

Which is why once again, I will repeat - SM ENTERTAINMENT WILL NEVER, EVER, EVERRR FIND ANOTHER GROUP AS DYNAMIC AND AS GOOD AS DBSK. SHINee may all have vocal ability and they may all be very good performers but they're a different band - the magic and the chemistry is different. What DBSK have, only they do and no one else will be able to replicate it. I got into DBSK because of the music, because of the songs, because of the vocals and because they're musicians, not a bunch of random guys thrown together a month before their debut and forced to perform together. They may be manufactured and they may be split into 2 right now over a stupid lawsuit but what they've already shown us over the past few years is just brilliance.

That is all.

DBSK's Vocal Prowess V2.0 - The Intro.

When I wrote my first analysis of DBSK's vocals, I knew a lot but I didn't know enough. I had watched countless performances and heard their entire discography at that point but I didn't really dwell on how their voices have grown over the years because I hadn't heard the same songs being performed year in and year out. This time, I've spent more time and a lot more effort on this - to do these five guys justice.

There's one song in particular that fueled me to re-write and re-analyze their vocals - Tonight off their second album Rising Sun. It's a very difficult song to sing, especially the verses, because of all the vocal gymnastics you'd think the song entails when it's actually harder to sing the melody than scream like there's no tomorrow. These guys have to try and focus on just singing the actual melody while thinking of what to do next - the song gives them the freedom to adlib all they want at certain parts but it constricts them because one wrong note and everyone after you will self-destruct.

People think that the measure of a singer's ability is how many high notes he/she can hit the longest or the highest or the loudest or the quickest. I'll tell you flat out now that it's most definitely not. So what if the guys can hit a High HIGH Si/Ti, can they hit it properly? It's just like running before you know how to walk - you can't do that. No matter how good people say you are at the 'screaming your head off like you're gonna die if you don't' stuff and no matter how nice your voice is, you can't do something bigger than you.

Putting Tonight on their second album was a gamble and even to this day performing it is precarious - they only recently learned how to properly sing it.

Tonight I think taught them control. There's a time to let loose and literally scream your head off but there's a part where they just have to sing the melody and not make any mistakes there. It taught them the importance of getting the melody straight before starting to hit high notes left and right and I think that helped make them good singers. Yes, even Yunho.

The adlib part of this song was brilliantly orchestrated - each member takes pitch from the one before them, they have to learn how to depend on each other and not let any one member down because it's game over once that happens. The whole song will literally fall apart if just one of them doesn't hit a note. It's like that so no one goes all-out and does anything they're not supposed to be doing, which brings us back to the 'walking before you can run' thing - you need to lay down a solid foundation before you go and do all these crazy things.

As I'm writing this now I'm listening to the recorded version - performed in a controlled environment, processed, mixed and mastered. They sound fantastic and it seems like they can really pull off the song.

So let's take it part by part, starting with the adlibs at the beginning. In the recorded version Junsu starts singing a whole+half note (6 counts total) and Changmin bursts in with a haphazardly-hit whole note. Junsu sounds brilliant but Changmin, even on the recorded version that note was bad.

The verses are pretty well-delivered in the recorded version, to tell you the truth. They're on pitch, on key and sound fantastic. BUT, the one thing I noticed was that Jaejoong gets no parts during the verses which is very strange since he's lead vocals. My best guess is that he can't sing it, that simple, but we'll get to Jaejoong later.

The chorus is very, very simple and there's little problem there because Junsu's the one doing the adlibs most of the time and the guy lives for that. The middle 8 between Junsu and Jaejoong is decent as well because duh, it's Jaejoong and Junsu - if that part wasn't flawless I would've given up on DBSK.

Then the first set of adlibs. I rest my case that Changmin is the screamer in DBSK. He is. He screams real high, it's shrill and it hurts my ears at higher registers. Then Jaejoong shows him how it's done and delivers his first set of adlibs before launching into singing the top parts of the chorus and straight into another round of belting. Junsu + Yunho sound good, Jaejoong goes, Yoochun freaks out and Changmin bursts eardrums for the nth time. Then, it comes.

JAEJOONG'S FALSETTO. If there's one piece of technique that Jaejoong knew at the time, it's this. Perfectly delivered, somehow overlooked because the other 4 come in again but brilliant in every sense of the word.

That's the glorious recorded version and I'm sorry to ruin your mood but the 5 guys weren't really able to sing this well live until 2008 and even then the performance was overdubbed. Below are 5 different live performances - in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and late 2008/2009. None of them were mimed but just to show you the difference, the first video is of them miming the song a day before the video below it. Just so you know the difference. (note that there's text after all these videos so if you've seen all of these, just scroll down and get back to reading. Hahah.)

MIMED performance 
(November 12, 2005)

NOT MIMED performances:
November 13, 2005

November 25, 2005

2006

2007 
(but they sang 'Purple Line' in the same concert so I'm guessing this was in 2008 as well)

2008

Late 2008/2009

As you can see and hear, it took a lot of time for them to learn how to sing the song - THREE YEARS. To tell you the truth, the 2007 performance of this was really painful to listen to. I'm not joking - I was cringing every few seconds because they just couldn't sing the damn song. Their 2008 performance wasn't perfect but it was competent enough to do justice to the recording.

One thing I have to raise though is the issue about Jaejoong's super high note at the end. I personally think he mimes that note about 95% of the time (see: performances in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009) because you watch the 2008 performance and he didn't hit the note. If he could do it before, why not then? It's mimed, that's the only logical answer.

I think there's a reason why they keep on performing this year in and year out and it's not just because of the parade of high notes.

Tonight not only taught them this and that and whatever, it shows us how the five have grown vocally. They weren't the best singers, they didn't all know how to sing, they may have had nice, high voices and wide ranges but Tonight is a song that documented how their vocals have matured and how they've learned to actually sing.

Now, what the effin' crap am I trying to say? DBSK weren't as good as they were being promoted at the beginning (all lead singer material? dream team? I think not.) but I think the fact that they were being pushed as insanely brilliant singers better than anyone else in their generation actually made them become some of the best in Asia - they had no choice. At a time when singing wasn't this good in idol bands, it was pretty ground-breaking.

Vocal Commentary Special re-briefing

It's been a while since my last vocal commentary, due to everything that happened late last year, so I thought it would be apt to have a re-briefing. There are a few very important things I have to discuss and they'll pretty much be the basis of all my vocal commentaries for the rest of the special.


There is a big difference between having a nice voice and being able to sing, A VERY BIG ONE. Having a nice voice is great and all but you don't necessarily have to have a drop-dead gorgeous voice to sing well. You do however need technique and training to be able to use a beautiful voice.

Last last year I was watching over some old DBSK performances and I came across this performance of Tonight (we'll get more in-depth about their vocals on this song when I publish the re-written version of my DBSK commentary):

It literally hurt my ears and my throat just listening to it. I know I like DBSK and I know I've said that they have gorgeous voices but back then, they had no idea how to use them. No wonder SM had them mime - they simply didn't know how to sing. Yeah sure the recordings sounded fantastic but recordings are nothing compared to live performances when you're looking at vocal ability, they always have and they always will be. Doesn't matter if the song is processed like crazy or not, when an artist sings in an uncontrolled environment without any machines changing the sound of the vocals that's the true measure of ability.

Although with the advent of studio technology namely overdubbing, live performances have been demoted - they're just as vague as recordings are when it comes to vocals. Overdubbing is an industry standard now, my dad says that most of not all pop concert DVDs are put through that process.

What is it? So let's say you have a concert with the audio (already processed on the spot, but not so much) and video recorded. Before that goes on a DVD the artists go back into the studio and RE-RECORD THE VOCALS. They're not put through as much processing as album recordings go through but they're still recorded in a controlled environment, mixed and mastered - those things make the recording as far from 'live' as you can get. They then mute the video and then slap the re-recorded vocals mixed with the sound of screaming/chanting fans on top of it. That is your standard pop concert DVD. So years after that performance of Tonight, here's a studio-processed and leveled 'live' version:

Spot the difference? Yes, the boys may have learned some form of technique over the years and they really have improved but the audio is too clean, too leveled to be 'live' and not put through some kind of studio trick. Say what you want to say that this wasn't put through anything but if you've been to a live concert you know what it sounds like and you know the difference between un-processed, raw vocals and vocals put through God knows what process.

But I'll save the rest of my ranting about DBSK for version 2 of my vocal commentary of them. SO ANYWAY.

In the same way that there's a difference between having a nice voice and being able to sing well, there's a difference when I say this person is a good singer and/or has a nice voice. A good singer has technique. He/she may not necessarily have a nice voice but knows exactly how to sing - whether or not the voice as a voice is nice, the end product will be decent.

If you have a nice voice, you may or may not be a good singer. A nice voice will do if you're young and all but as you get older you're expected to learn technique - if you don't you're not a good singer, you just have a nice voice. That voice has to be used properly because if it's not, then the end product will NOT be decent.

Which is why when I do my vocal commentaries I always say 'my favorite voice in *insertnameofbandhere*' and NOT 'the best singer'. I judge vocals on those posts - not technique or whatever else.

Big Bang's Vocal Prowess

Well, well - I finally got myself to write another vocal commentary!

I think you guys know that I had a little problem including Big Bang in this special, mainly because 2 of the 5 members are predominantly rappers and to be completely honest with you guys I know nothing about rap and I most probably will never learn anything because it's not something I particularly enjoy listening to. I tried asking around what made a good rapper but the problem with asking someone else is that I won't be able to form my own opinions and my own concept of beauty - it'll be just me 'emulating' someone else's opinion and that's not the reason why I blog. I prefer forming my own opinions on things before asking people what they think.

So I've solved this problem - I will only comment on the three vocalists. G Dragon sang on his debut album but it was so damn auto-tuned that I can't properly 'analyze' his voice. Therefore, I will comment on Taeyang, Seungri and Daesung only.

Big Bang are Korea's R&B/Hip Hop/Rapping boyband so it's only natural that they don't have pop voices but those that the hip hop experts find good and suitable for the songs they perform. These guys aren't big ballad singers, they're R&B slow song singers and they're not rock singers, they're hip-hop uptempo singers. Their voices weren't made to sing songs like DBSK's Rising Sun or stuff like that, they were made to sing songs like Usher's Burn. Therefore, the way I look at their voices varies a bit from the pop bands - because even if they still do make pop music, it's a different side of the genre.

Together these three guys are strong and individually they're good but one voice really just stands out for me. We'll get to that later. Below is a slow song recorded and live and an uptempo recorded and live. Feast your ears on their vocals:

The slow song: A Fool's Only Tears (2006)

The uptempo: Sunset Glow (2008)

Taeyang

This guy has a voice that I would class as stereotypical and always present in a more hip-hop band in Korea. It's nasal, it's on the thin side and it sounds insanely good auto-tuned. In short, it's a stupid record producer's dream come true to be able to process this guy's voice because it comes out insanely good. He has his strengths, the guy can sing and it sounds good to some but I personally don't like his voice because it's too nasal live and he only sounds good autotuned. However for the uptempos his voice does well and he makes the group very distinctly hip hop. Without him Big Bang would not be hip hop vocally so you gotta commend the guy. He also sounds good when you combine him with the other two so as long as he helps make the band as a whole, doesn't matter if he doesn't appeal to me individually - he's in a band and he should be able to blend with everyone else, not overpower them or stick out like a sore thumb.

Seungri

Seungri is like a less nasal and deeper version with Taeyang with a much nicer timbre. It's still nasal and ideal for the songs they're doing though. If I were to chose between this guy and Taeyang, I'd chose this guy. I personally think he has the right mix of the nasal voice hip-hop people want and an over-all nice timbre. Thus, he is the guy with the nice timbre in the band. His voice may not be predominantly smooth and it may not be right next to the Key and Tiffanys of the world but the timbre is enough to carry him as a singer. He does the uptempos well, he does the ballads well - he's probably in between Taeyang and Daesung.

Daesung

Oh dear, here I go again with another insanely smooth voice. Daesung Big Bang is right beside Taemin SHINee and Jaejoong DBSK in terms of smoothness - the guy's voice is so damn smooth that I was falling at my feet just hearing 3 - 4 lines from him in an entire song. For someone with a predominantly smooth voice, he surprisingly also has a nice timbre. It's not exceptionally nice like Key SHINee but it's unusual for someone with a smooth voice like his to have a timbre on the deeper side. He's flexible as well - he sounds pretty decent autotuned, sounds great when he hits high notes and can sing trot (Korean traditional music mixed with pop. Very big market in Korea.) although not my type. His main role in the band is to smoothen out Taeyang's nasal voice and Seungri's deep one. I think you already know by now but I'll say it anyway - Daesung is my favorite voice in Big Bang.

I knew he had that kind of voice since the very start of my acquaintance with Big Bang but it took me this song so really be blown away with it. He takes the lead in choruses at 0:48 - 1:02, 1:49 - 2:05 and 3:11 - 3:26, solos at 2:22 - 2:30, 2:33 - 2:43 (that's the high note) and an ad lib from 3:30 - 3:35.

Thoughts? Agree or disagree? Put everything in the comments section! Hahah.

EDITED 11/2 - Vocal Commentaries: Terminology, how I look at voices

Edited with more examples and a few new terms that popped up while I was writing some of the commentaries. Re-read to refresh yourself before the Big Bang commentary tomorrow! Hahah.

So before we go full speed ahead with the rest of the vocal commentaries, I think you guys need to know what the crap I'm talking about when I say certain things. There are certain things I look for in a voice and certain general qualities voices have that I tend to ramble on about. So, here's a sort of 'glossary' and a short explanation.

Timbre (good) - It's the tone, the color and the 'feel' of a voice. This is one of the most important qualities in a voice for me. The timbre pretty much decides how the rest of your voice goes but a nice timbre doesn't automatically mean you sing well. Examples of people with good voices and extraordinarily nice timbres are Junsu DBSK, Onew SHINee, Kyuhyun Super Junior, Luna and Amber (yes, AMBER! The girl can sing.) f(x), Pixie Lott, Vanessa The Saturdays, Nadine Girls Aloud and Tiffany SNSD.

Smoothness (good) - A smooth voice is nice on the ears and delivers the notes smoothly (duh). I don't think there's a term for it but a smooth voice doesn't deliver notes chopped up or yeah. A lot of smooth voices I've encountered are also most often thinner (except for Shane Westlife). Notable examples are Shane Westlife (as mentioned), Taemin SHINee, Donghae Super Junior, Jaejoong DBSK, and Daesung Big Bang, JoJo, Jordin Sparks, Wooyoung 2PM, Narsha Brown Eyed Girls and Frankie The Saturdays.

Thinness (bad) - No power, no conviction - they sound bored and their vocals are weak. As much as I don't like voices that are too big, they should at least have some sense of body. Don't have any solid examples, sorry!

Shrillness (bad) - This is different from being able to hit high notes left and right. A shrill voice hurts the ears especially during high notes but a very shrill voice hurts the ears even during normal range notes. Notable shrill voices I've encountered are Jessica SNSD, Krystal f(x) (sorry, I just had to say it), sometimes Changmin DBSK, Nicole Kara, Ashley Tisdale, Seo In Young Jewelry, Eric Dill and Cheryl Cole GA when she hits high notes in her normal voice.

Excessiveness (bad) - I don't like excessively big voices, it's more of a personal preference that this quality is bad. Excessive is when you either sound too old for your age or push your voice too much you're practically screaming. For some people a voice is good when it can hit extremely high notes with a normal voice but for me yeah, it's great and all but sometimes it can be too much. Notable examples of voices with this quality are Charice Pempengco, Yesung Super Junior, Jonghyun SHINee, sometimes Junsu DBSK (but not always) and sometimes Vanessa The Sats.

Airy (bad/good) - By the word itself, you know what this means. Notable examples are Eoghan Quigg (sometimes), Britt Nicole (but in a good way, surprisingly), James Morrison (on purpose), Jea Brown Eyed Girls and Hyun Joong SS501.

Ability to sing live (good) - It's proof that you can actually sing. Anything 98 - 100% live will do - TV shows, concert tours, impromptu a capella sessions, etc. Your live voice must sound at least 90% like your recorded voice because otherwise it means your voice was processed more than usual. If your voice becomes a lot thinner, if you can't hit those notes, if you try and push too much but end up screaming or at worse you can't even sing the song then all those recordings don't represent your voice. Notable people who sound the same, almost the same or sometimes better recorded and live are most of DBSK, Shane Westlife, Kyuhyun Super Junior, Jewelry's leader, IU, pretty much all of SHINee and Lina CSJH. Notable people who sound very little or nothing like their recorded voices are Donghae Super Junior, Mark Westlife, Sunny SNSD, all of Kara, Sandara 2NE1 (but then again the girl can't sing) and Lee Hyori.

Sound good when auto-tuned (bad) - If you only sound good obviously auto-tuned then we have a problem - you can't sing. Studio tricks won't do in the real world and although you can auto-tune live performances, people know when you're doing that. Big concerts have huge sound tents that they say are for transmission and recording but what no one tells you is that they put 'live' vocals through some not so obvious cleaning. Concert DVDs are worse - they get put through post production! So actually, the best videos that gauge if you can actually sing are fan videos and impromtu singing. However no one really gets professionally-shot and recorded impromptu singing because then it wouldn't be impromptu! There are producers though who don't do anything to live stuff. AND most often nasal voices sound good auto-tuned so most of the people on either list fit well either way. Notable examples are Taeyang Big Bang, Ashley Tisdale and uh, Taeyang Big Bang.

Additional terms:

Fullness (good) - Full voices are most often instantly nice-timbred ones. When I say full I don't necessarily mean deep but there are a lot of full voices that are deep. I can't accurately explain exactly what a full voice is but notable examples are Key SHINee, Hwayobi, Nadine Girls Aloud, JoJo, Jesse McCartney, Pixie Lott and Vanessa Amorosi.

Attention to Technique (good) - Singing is a sport - you use your voice a lot and if you don't use it properly you will most likely destroy it. No matter how beautiful your voice is, the minute I notice that you don't have technique will spell the end of your singing career in a few years. You have to know when to breathe, how to push your voice, how to use a falsetto or a head tone, not to 'growl' or scratch your voice all the time, what kind of sounds work for which letters and so on and so forth. You can have technique but not be formally trained, it's all about knowing how to treat your voice. From what I've observed, people with good technique are Taeyeon SNSD, Key SHINee, Kimberly Girls Aloud, Jaejoong DBSK, and Pixie Lott.

Power (good) - There's a fine line between power and loudness/screaming and I hate when that line gets blurred. You can have power if your voice is soft but the minute you mistake it for loudness and scream your head off instead of sing it off - I'm sorry but you're not a very good singer. Power is when you push your voice but don't scream and high notes sound very natural but not excessive. Did you get that? I hope you did. Examples from my point of view are Key SHINee, Jaejoong DBSK, Tiffany and/or Taeyeon SNSD and maybe Seungri Big Bang.

Throaty-ness (VERY BAD) - A throaty voice means that you're singing from your throat and not your diaphragm, or at least it sounds like that - either way it's horrid. I separated this from attention to technique because for crap's sake, isn't it a given that you're not supposed to sing from your throat because that sounds crap? Most often throaty voices sound like they're being strangled but some voices that sound like they're being strangled aren't throaty. OK. Why is it very bad? Well not only are you destroying people's eardrums, you're also destroying your voice. I'd give you 4 years max and that voice of yours is gone. Notable examples are 2 of the girls from Secret (don't know their names, not the rapper and not the one with bangs in the music video of I Want You Back. Hahah.) and a few of the guys from Beast (don't know their names either but they're there - will get back to you when I find out. hahah).

Dimension (good) - I said this when I commented on SHINee but to tell you the truth dimension can be anything. You can have any kind of voice and have dimension - it's all a matter of how you use your voice and what the listener likes. Dimension is when a voice has more than one predominant quality, it's when you have more and use it to your advantage, but it's also a personal preference. Dimensional voices to me are Key SHINee, Junsu and/or Yoochun DBSK, Hwayobi, Guy Sebastian and Blake Lewis.

Note that this is still incomplete after an edit and that there are a ton of other terms I use - these are just the ones you'll encounter the most.

Got it? OK. Catchy my Big Bang commentary TOMORROW!

Girls Aloud vs. The Saturdays. Vocally.

You've read my intro, watched the videos, now it's time to read my thoughts. Let the showdown of the British girl groups begin!

10 girls, 10 different voices but each girl in both groups has a certain persona - they all give both groups the dimension and talent to make them worthy of their success. There's no one in the groups who's boring and each voice complements the rest, without any one of them neither GA nor The Sats will be who they are.

Please be advised, this is in no particular order!

The BIG voice

The girls who get the most lines, 90% of the ad-libs at the end and are what they call the 'lead singers' in Korea. It's unsaid but I really think these are the 'lead singers'.

Girls Aloud: Nadine Coyle

This girl has the big, show-stopping voice - she's known for her predominantly rich and deep timbre. Nadine, like Jonghyun SHINee, gives the group another dimension because you have got to put her only slightly auto-tuned vocals to contrast the rest of the group's heavily processed ones on songs like Untouchable and you need her intensity to balance off the other fours' subtlety on songs like The Loving Kind. In short, Nadine has a gorgeous voice and although it may not personally be my favorite in the band, you need her in Girls Aloud - without her GA is not GA.

The Saturdays: Vanessa White

The only similarity Vanessa has with Nadine vocally is the fact that they both have the big voices in their respective bands. Vanessa has a much smoother voice and this all boils down to personal taste now - I prefer hers over Nadine's but that's purely my opinion. Her voice is a lot more fitting for the stuff The Sats are doing and may I just say, this girl knows how to sing her head off - properly. Unlike a lot of other singers we know.

The SMOOTH voice

The description is enough - these girls are the mediators, the ones who balance off the rest of their band member's colorful and sometimes even outrageous voices. Even if they don't get as much attention as some, you can't go without these girls, you really can't.

Girls Aloud: Kimberly Walsh

The first thing that pops into my head when I hear Kimberly's vocals is that she enunciates really well. ANYWAY. Her vocals are smooth, very smooth. They're so smooth that if you auto-tune them it still kinda sounds similar to when you just use the 'regular' amount of auto-tune. But really, she has a beautiful voice that gets overlooked by Nadine's gigantic one and Sarah's screaming - I wish she got a heck of a lot more solo lines! No really, you listen to GA songs and I think the problem with her is that her voice is so smooth that producers don't want it and think it's a little too boring for the material, which it's not. HOWEVER, that broadway thing she did for Passions was jaw-dropping for me.

The Saturdays: Frankie Sandford

Frankie, Frankie, Frankie. This girl's voice has always been smooth - since she was in S Club 8 she got the most solo lines because their songs needed smooth voices, it was dance-y for crap's sake! Hahah. I first noticed exactly how damn smooth her voice was and still is when I heard Just Can't Get Enough - her first line really made the entire song for me vocally. On Forever Is Over she sounds a little whine-y during her solos but over-all she pretty much just sounds older - her voice is STILL smooth.

The predominantly PRETTY FACE

These two girls can sing, they really can but they're not as good as their other band mates. For me personally, they're the ones who bring the MOST 'attitude' or anything not directly related to actually singing. But they can sing, why else are they in the bands?

Girls Aloud: Cheryl Cole

Compared to the other members, Cheryl's probably the least vocally capable. She's better than a lot of other singers, which is why she's in Girls Aloud and she sings those R&B numbers very well but after you hear Nadine and Nicola, she just pales in comparison. There are times when I think her voice gets a little to whine-y but there are also times when I think her voice is jut gorgeous - it's just that she's inconsistent. Fight For This Love is pretty good vocally (NOT musically and you guys know that) but I believe that once Nicola hopefully gets some solo stuff out, Cheryl will be blown completely out of the water.

The Saturdays: Mollie King

Mollie isn't JUST a pretty face either, but if you don't take how she matches The Saturdays' songs into context and just take her as a singer, I wouldn't be too impressed. HOWEVER if you listen to her vocals on Work (I believe she gets the most airtime on that - the entire first verse), they match the song very well. It once again boils down to the fact that she can only sing a few types of songs and not everything you throw at her BUT she does what she can pretty damn well.

The ROCK CHIK

Rockers - they do their fair share of screaming (Sarah mainly) and the name pretty much says it all.

Girls Aloud: Sarah Harding

Sarah's voice is a little shrill for me, enough said. But the girl can sing and she has a high voice but it doesn't have a deep timbre like Nadine or a very, very smooth one with equally smooth delivery like Kimberly - Sarah just can't help but let loose. There are times when that can be an especially good thing but there are also times for me when it can get a little annoying. However she has her own niche in the group and kudos to her for sticking to it!

The Saturdays: Una Healey

What I like about Una is the fact that she isn't just a rocker - she can do the ballads and the dance stuff, it's just that the timbre of her voice fits the rock stuff more than it does the other girls'. I first heard her sing a good, solid solo part when I saw a live performance of Chasing Lights - her part is just insanely brilliant. By the time I heard her solo on Forever is Over, I was convinced she was made to sing these kinds of songs - she has the technique and the timbre to pull it off and that middle 8 of hers pretty much made the entire song.

The quiet one who sings DAMN GOOD

The label kind of applies to Nicola more than it does to Rochelle but let's just stick with it, OK?

Girls Aloud: Nicola Roberts

I'll say this now so you know what to expect - Nicola is my favorite voice in Girls Aloud. She's my favorite because her voice is so different that she actually pulls it off very well! Voices like hers that are shrill at times but thin and smooth, if not delivered and thought of well can be very annoying and ugly but Nicola's is beautiful - it's not too much but it's not held back or boring, it's just right. Her voice matches the GA aesthetic the best - she embodies everything GA has and the music they're making.

The Saturdays: Rochelle Wiseman

Rochelle. I first noticed her voice when I saw the video for Issues - I was surprised to hear that voice coming out her her mouth! She sings the part of the verse before Vanessa and when I heard the striking contrast between their voices I was baffled not by Vanessa's but by Rochelle's. Rochelle sounds like a deeper, more predominantly smooth and less excessive version of Vanessa and I personally like those kinds of voices a lot better, as you guys may have noticed over the past few vocal commentaries. Therefore, my favorite voice in The Saturdays is Rochelle.